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Essays

I have received a nice study course on the Bhagavad-Gita and japa mala beads. I have been chanting Hare Krsna on rosary beads. I enjoy chanting and I chant every day. Chanting definitely connects me to the eternal source of enlightenment and bliss. This source is Krishna. Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead.

I received a four month sentence within these prison walls, faced with time on my hands. The first three weeks were in the county jail and then onto prison, where there were three more grueling weeks of lockdown, before I was brought into the prison “yard.” All through this experience KRSNA was there and opened the doors for me to preach to the women that I would have seen as closed.

In our current civilization, from very early in life, we are taught that the homeless, the sanitation worker, the unemployed, or the poor are to be avoided. The average worker is not to be associated with but the rich or famous are to be admired and sought after. From movie stars and politicians we seek autographs. But who is the greatest?

In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krsna, on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, tells Arjuna “For one who has taken birth death is certain and for one who is dead birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty you should not lament.”
BG 2.27

Like children everywhere, when I was a young boy I often stated with great frustration, “It’s not fair.” As a child I had a very limited understanding of fairness and justice. And now as an adult I still find myself complaining about the seeming unfairness of different things. Judging simply by appearances, life seems grossly unfair. But with spiritual insight and instructions we come to understand that it is perfectly fair and there is perfect justice.

One time there was a hairy sage who had a benediction that he would live until every hair fell off his body. However, only one hair would fall off every then thousand years. So the village people said, “Let us build you a small hut so that you can live in it.” The sage immediately replied, “Why? I am only here temporarily!”

The 100 sons of Dhrtarastra (the Kurus) wanted to murder Emperor Yudhistira and his four brothers (the Pandavas) so that one of the Kurus could be the emperor. The Kurus tried, and failed, in six ways to murder the Pandavas. One of the Kurus, Duhsasana, devised a plot to steal the emperor’s throne by cheating Emperor Yudhistira in a dice game. The ksatriyas are allowed to gamble against one another.

Today is the 4th of July. Today we wake to fight for our independence, not to celebrate our freedom as a nation, but to fight for our right to worship our spiritual masters, Lord Caitanya and Nityananda Prabhu.

“One should be humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the tree.”” This quote comes from the Sri-Sri-Siksastaka by Lord Caitanya. This is a reminder that I tell myself daily. I have trouble with the tolerance part, so I decided to write on the subject. I learn more when I read and write about something I need to work on.